FUTURES AND OPTIONS

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TUCKED away behind Cannon Street, the former London International Financial Futures Exchange (Liffe) has become an essential part of NYSE Euronext’s business model.

The trading platform and its clearing house underpinned the exchange’s $182m (£115.9m) derivatives revenue, and NYSE Euronext is hoping the semi-mutualisation of its US equivalent will help create a similar buzz on the other side of the Atlantic.

Liffe’s roots lie in the early 1980s, when it was a colourful and noisy marketplace dominated by phone brokers and pit traders. It may be a more demure workplace today, but NYSE Liffe is its parent company’s best hope for long-term growth. Derivatives accounted for more than a quarter of Euronext’s most recent revenues.